Biography of Benjamin Byrd (b. 1798), Wakulla County, Florida File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Byrd, JByrd16476@aol.com USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. This file may not be removed from this server or altered in any way for placement on another server without the consent of the State and USGenWeb Project coordinators and the contributor. *********************************************************************** Information provided by John Byrd, JByrd16476@aol.com Benjamin Byrd - Florida's First State Treasurer Son of Benjamin Byrd and Zilphia Hufham was born in Lenoir County, North Carolina in 1798. He lived in Duplin County, North Carolina prior to coming to Leon County, Florida. In 1827, he married in Tallahassee Mary Burney, the daughter of Arthur Burney and Sarah Blount. She had come to Leon County with her parents from Georgia. Benjamin Byrd was prominent in the early development of Leon County and acquired large tracts of land. For several years he was a merchant at Magnolia on the St Marks River selling groceries, dry goods, hardware, cutlery, glassware, blacksmith tools, drugs and medicines, wines and whiskey, shoes and boots, books and stationary for "exchange for cotton, tallow, cow hides, deer and other skins and other country produce (Magnolia Advertiser - 12 December, 1828.) His wares were shipped from New York and New Orleans by schooners which docked at the Port of Magnolia. He bought 671 acres of land in the Magnolia tract for speculation, no doubt, because the "rapid and almost un-exampled increase of population and business" was making Magnolia a place of considerable importance. He was postmaster of Magnolia as well as councilman and a member of the Citizens Committee. He served as auctioneer at Magnolia and later as a Justice of the Peace for Leon County. In 1839, he moved his mercantile interests from Magnolia to the store in Miccosukee that had been abandoned by James L. Parish. William Dunn Mosley was Florida's first governor when Florida became a state in 1845. He did not arrive in the area until much later than Benjamin Byrd. he too was from Lenoir County, North Carolina. They had many business transactions with each other and were in all probability kin in marriage to each other in Lenoir County. In July of 1845, the First Assembly of the State of Florida elected Benjamin Byrd State Treasurer by a vote of 42 to one. He was commissioned 5 August, 1845, and his salary was 800 dollars a year. The graves of Benjamin's wife Mary, her parents and children who died prior to Benjamin leaving Leon County for Texas were on a plantation near Miccosukee in Leon County. In July of 1997 the graves were re-located to the Indian Springs Church Cemetery in Miccousukee where Mary's father Arthur Burney had been a charter member. Sometime after the death of his wife and during the late 1850's, Benjamin and the remainder of his family left Florida and re-located in Polk County, Texas. He is shown there in the 1860 Polk County, Texas Census.